Astronaut's space shuttle-flown Santa hat on display for the seasonA red and white conical cap that circled the world one Christmas Eve — not atop a jolly old man riding a reindeer-guided sled, but rather on a NASA astronaut aboard a space shuttle — has gone on display in Kansas to celebrate the holiday season.
The Cosmosphere, a space museum and science education center in Hutchinson, has placed on temporary exhibit the Santa hat worn by STS-103 mission specialist John Grunsfeld on the third Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission in December 1999. During the nearly 8-day flight, which was the only space shuttle mission to be in orbit on Christmas, the cap traveled 3,250,000 miles (5,230,000 km) while making 119 revolutions around the planet.
posted 12-16-2025 06:03 PM
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